Bryan Newman, a 13-year-old from Bowling Green, Kentucky, had his animated film “A Duck, A Window, and A Sandwich,” featured for the first time at Chicago’s CineYouth Film Festival, a three-day event dedicated to showcasing and inspiring young filmmakers.
As he walked around Lincoln Park’s FACETS theater on the first day of the festival on Friday, April 25, he met other young directors and producers who were part of the event. As an eighth grader, he said it was exciting to see his work shown on a big screen.
“I’ve wanted to be an animator since I was five years old,” Newman said. “I think this kind of gives people courage.”
CineYouth, presented by the Chicago International Film Festival, features a variety of short films from filmmakers 22 and younger from all over the world. The 20th annual festival included 79 films from 21 countries across the three-day weekend from April 25 to 27.
The screenings covered a range of genres; horror films, queer stories, family friendly films, international short stories and more. The festival also had workshop events for filmmakers that covered the importance of branding and how to support a creative process.
All of the screenings are also available online from Monday, April 28 to Sunday, May 4.
Christy LeMaster, the CineYouth Festival director, said that it was important to invest in young filmmakers because “we are creative people our whole lives.” LeMaster worked with the CineYouth programming committee which was composed of college students. The students screened over 400 films, crafted each screening, and managed the program guide and website. She said it was a great experience to work with young creatives from the students on the programming board to the filmmakers that were featured.
“It takes a lot for any person, whatever their age, to claim a space,” LeMaster said. “I hope that CineYouth is a place where young filmmakers get a foothold in that process.”
Justin Turner, a senior film major at Loyola University and part of the CineYouth programming committee, said that it was important to invest in young storytellers. He said that young creatives don’t feel the pressure to “fit into a box” in their films and that allows them to be bolder.
“It’s so hard to get started as a young person in the industry. It feels like you have to be established and things like that,” Turner said. “So, it’s important to amplify young voices because they’re so unique. They’re very authentic.”
Turner worked alongside seven other college interns in the programming committee from different schools including DePaul University, Loyola University, University of Illinois Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. The eight students crafted the event from the ground up and welcomed audience members and filmmakers over the three-day weekend.
They watched as the films that were chosen in January were presented to an audience that filled almost every one of the 126 seats in the Facets theater. Audience members laughed, cried and cheered alongside the filmmakers, celebrating their hard work and creative stories.
Dylan Kaufmann, a junior film and television major from Columbia College Chicago, had his animation “Stay” featured on Saturday, April 28. He attended the first day of the festival and said it was inspiring to see the vulnerable stories that were presented. He said that young filmmakers bring a new perspective to the industry.
“When you’re young and starting out, you’ll really do anything,” Kaufmann said. “It’s just about that drive and you can really feel that with young filmmakers. They want this and everybody who’s here today wants this bad.”
At the end of the event, CineYouth honored the young creatives with awards in eight different categories; Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, International, Chicago and Rising Star.
Missy Hernandez, an assistant professor in the School of Film and Television at Columbia, was part of the jury that decided on the Chicago Award.
She said that this award was particularly hard to judge because there were 11 films across different genres like comedy, documentary and animation. She said that each one captured a different part of the city with a unique touch from the next generation of filmmakers.
Hernandez explained how many young filmmakers often start in Chicago and branch out to other cities, but said that it’s important to invest their creativity back into their home city.
“I feel like if we really set roots here and encourage people to stay here and keep making things here, we can have one of the most vibrant film communities in the country as long as we invest in our young folks,” she said.
Across the eight categories, most of the winners were 22 and 21 years old. The youngest winner was for the International Award which was awarded to the animated short story “Paper Love” made by Jeremi Rzadowski, a 9-year-old from Poland. Four of the award winners were from Illinois while others came from New York, California and Spain.
The young filmmakers and their families celebrated on the last day of the festival. Yanely Castellanos, a junior film and television major from Columbia and part of the CineYouth programming board, took polaroid photos of all of the filmmakers to document their success.
Castellanos first found CineYouth in 2024 when their film was featured. They said it was a full circle moment to be back as a programmer of the event. Since then, they’ve been invested in supporting young creatives as they continue to pursue their dreams. Castellanos said that the festival cherishes the freedom of creativity.
“Being a film student, you kind of forget that because you’re so used to creating films for a grade or for a project or a thesis,” they said. “It’s really nice to just watch young people be creative because that’s what they deserve.”
As Castellanos watched the next generation of filmmakers celebrate their creative success, they said it was important to encourage young people to follow their dreams “because those are our next storytellers, our next directors, cinematographers.”
Additional reporting by Samantha Ho
Copy edited by Patience Hurston
